Words for the wise from the mouth of a fool.
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The weblog of Seth Johnson -------------- INKSLINGER.ORG -------------- OD ARCHIVES -------------- FEEDS Posts:  Shared Items:
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Friday, May 03, 2002
Y'know, exploding mailboxes are exactly the kind of prank that we talked about in high school--but never did becase people could get hurt. Then someone who doesn't have that compunction comes up with the idea...
Here's hoping they nail whatever bloodthirsty hick is behind it as soon as possible.
Astronomical neatness with the planets all coming into alignment, as described in this Yahoo story--center-justified for extra alignment neatness, I guess.
In case your parents are looking for something to do in their golden years.
You probably hate me now.
Where world events and amusement collide, Part Two:
I'm not certain if this is a hoax or not, but I do think that Pepsi should be paying these guys a kickback or something.
Where world events and amusement collide, Part One:
Antiantiglobalization? Or just someone who can't afford a new pane of glass?
An interesting piece, where free font developers are fighting off lawyers trying to use the DMCA as a cudgel.
Found via Blogdex, it's the Stan Lee Solution to problems. I may have to try it out in a meeting sometime...
A new month, new book and CD over to the left. You should acquire and enjoy accordingly. As always, old reccomendations can be found on my Links page.
Remember my link to the company that made incredibly complex, incredibly expensive playhouses for kids? (I can't find it either--my search engine needs some tweaking--but this should give you an idea of what I'm talking about.)
Ever wonder what their parents are buying? Here's the answer: backyard pubs.
Google bombing to issue a wakeup call for those who enable domain theft. Follow the bomb below to understand why, or click here to find out who built the bomb and how to plant your own copy:
Bomb in 3....2....1...
Verisign
Thank you.
I know I've proselytized for the Bleat before, but:
James Lileks' Bleat is one of my daily stops not only because I enjoy reading the writing of someone who has solid opinions on world events (even if I don't always 100% agree with him), but also because he comes up with interesting word usements like "Clifford the Big Red Dog is Put Down and the Smoke from the Crematorium Blackens the Skies for Three Days" in the midst of a witty and intelligent discussion of (and here I agree with him completely) how fantastic today's childrens' books happen to be.
Every spring a group of Madison-area Tolkien fans play the Ring Game, and this spring was no exception. Though I've never played or even gotten the chance to spectate, my friend Chris Pagel got to play the part of Sarumon (okay, Dr. Evil and Sarumon, but that's Chris for you) in what is being called the Wettest Ring Game Ever. Chris' story of his (Sarumon's? Dr. Evil's?) experiences is funny and reccommended reading.
Thursday, May 02, 2002
Best Yahoo headline of the day, on their version of a story I linked to below: "Brain implants turn rats into robots."
Heard the NSF's "Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding" report discussed on WPR this morning, so I tracked it down and I've started to dip into it. Interesting and a bit scary reading--this table on belief in astrology, for example.
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
What the--?!?!? Tell me they didn't actually misspell Ben Bova's name on the cover of his latest novel! The cover looks proper on Bova's web site, and the Tor web page doesn't say anything about the matter. If it was just a prank by someone (at Amazon or elsewhere), I suspect heads will roll...
UPDATE: Sent an email about the weirdness to an old friend who works at Tor, and now two hours, later, the image is gone (Out of respect for Bova, I won't post to my archived copy of the image.) Haven't heard directly from them yet, but it's either a)strangely coincidental or b) feels strange to have effects on the world. Either way, strange.
EXTRA UPDATE: The link on memepool that led me to the weirdness has also vanished.
Those who were around Madison when Stephen Ambrose was a visiting scholar might remember the loud and public stink he made about where he was and wasn't allowed to smoke in the draconian Midwest (not to mention his general arrogance whenever I encountered him at Pic-a-Book.) Though I enjoy his books, the man himself was just annoying enough that I see this as harsh, bad news--but just ever so slightly ironic...
Congrats to Jon on the rollout of Marvel HeroClix! Though I won't be really buying in until DC HeroClix comes out this fall, I did pick up a starter set and got a really cool Captain America figure. The paint jobs...well, it looks like the Chinese prisoners are still learning to do the new characters--the SHIELD Medic looks like she has eyes the size of salad plates...
Hopefully I'll get a chance to play later tonight, and check out all the cool new abilities and powers.
Found when I was looking for the "Mr. Hooper" link in the last post is this Sesame Street fan's picture page. I particularly like photos like this one of Big Bird and this one from an early season that look less like publicity stills and more like pictures found in a flea market photo album from a really eccentric family...
So Blue's Clues has a new host: Joe. Perhaps Liana or another OD reader with kids could clue me in as to the total ramifications of the switch (maybe a Metafilter poster was correct in saying that the trauma is similar to that suffered by an older generation when Mike replaced Joel), but the sheer volume of transition material presented on the "Meet Joe!" page is...well, is it really needed? I mean, I remember being shaken when Mr. Hooper died, but I got over it without a PDF coloring book...
UPDATE: Someday I will reflexively spell Liana's name properly, rather than being required to go back and correct every post. Mea culpa, Liana.
Monday, April 29, 2002
Woo! Apple's new eMac may indeed be judged to be the best thing since sliced bread, but who out there is actually swayed by advertising copy like:
The eMac comes with five crisp screen resolutions ... making it perfect for the classroom. Setting the screen to a higher resolution means there is more workspace for students and teachers to study large documents, two-page spreads, websites and other projects without having to waste time scrolling down to see the rest of the document. Less scrolling means more time spent working and learning — a desirable outcome in an environment where every second counts.
I really like Apple. I do. But why do they keep treating everyone like idiots?
Okay! House on the Rock pictures ready for your perusal. First, a few for you low-bandwidth peoples:
- Dynamite is born!
- Where do you buy your groceries?
- Get a token, buy a hillbilly.
- At JP's request, HitlerMoses.jpg
- Horse bites horse!
- It's a long walk through the House.
- Look out for lions and tigers...
- If only I had found this when I was looking for SA-ready image macros...
- Would you buy a cart from this man?
- When Bear fights Eagles, who will win?
And now, better pictures that are hopefully worth the bigger download (250-450K) for the larger size and image quality--and all of them are desktop ready!
- Ye Olde Apothecary
- ...and the Apothecary at night
- Don't mess with an Army of 50 Clowns.
- Won't anyone save the bear from the evil machinations of the monkey?
- Wooden Saint Bernard
- Enormous Bowling Ball Clock
- A miniature circus
- The robot band of the circus
- The secret lair of the Phantom of the House
- I don't know what it is, but it might save your life!
- (Okay, this was taken as a camera test before I left the office...)
- A giant pot with dragons crawling on it.
- In the midst of the madness, a calming garden.
- Gasmask. (My current desktop.)
- A life-sized model of a geisha.
- Outside the House.
- The Gladiator Band.
- The innate sense of style possessed by the people behind the House is stunning (in one way or another).
- Saw this and thought it would make a nice desktop.
- One of my goals when I went to the house: to get a good desktop image of nothing but carousel horses.
- Jugs.
- Kettle drums that play themselves.
- A leering centaur
- Random machinery (and there's a lot of it around the House.)
- Masquerade
- The monkey beckons--and you must heed!
- The Old Miser attempts to repent on his deathbed, but it's hard with skeletons dancing around your bed...
- Another image taken for no reason other than to be a desktop
- He's a buccaneer! He's a horse! He's BOTH--he's a pirate centaur!
- Get the best pistol rocket on the market--the Schermuly Pistol Rocket!
Fingers weary from linking; a dozen more pictures to come shortly...
LATER:Okay, here come the rest. Sorry if the descriptions aren't all that great; I'm not feeling well...
- Another giant pot.
- Model ship rigging.
- An armored saber-toothed tiger. (and after a day at House on the Rock, you're so numb to weirdness that you almost feel normal typing something like that.)
- A robot saxophone.
- Scrimshaw.
- The Silk Purse.
- If this gnome is so spooky wearing a mask, imagine what he looks like without it...
- Bronze and Birch.
- St. George charges into battle against a tongue.
- Old stock (taken for period typography fans.)
- Also taken for typography fans, yet still interesting to examine and debate whether or not there are still tapeworms in the bottles.
- The spirits of the damned cry out from each of his completed works....
- I just like that one end of the Zephyrian's race was in "Dorking".
...and that's it. I have a few more pictures, and higher quality/super-larger versions of all the above. Drop me an email if you're interested.
There's a new T-shirt in the Monkeyfan Store featuring a logo seen at House on the Rock last Friday. I'm in the midst of processing pictures right now, and they should be up shortly.
Sunday, April 28, 2002
I just clicked to check it out for a few minutes, and ended up rating various folks as annoying or not (mostly annoying) for almost half an hour...
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